Are you ready for a horror movie based on Singin’ in the Rain, The Maltese Falcon, Rhapsody in Blue, or A Farewell to Arms?

Sure, it’s highly unlikely that Hitchcock’s Blackmail, The Marx Brothers movie The Cocoanuts, or the song Ain’t Misbehavin’ will be turned into mediocre slashers the way that the characters of Bambi and Winnie the Pooh world, but it’s not impossible.

And the reason it could happen is because the works mentioned above, along with many others, lost their copyright-protected status and became part of the public domain on January 1st, 2025. You (or anyone) can now add, modify and adapt these works and their characters to your own “original” works without needing to clear rights or pay royalties. Note: This applies to US law only.

This year the expiration of copyright frees up books, plays, movies, art, and musical compositions from 1929, plus sound recordings from 1924. Most works released from 1923 onward are protected for 95 years after their release under the terms of 1998’s Sonny Bono Copyright Term Extension Act. This law prevented new works from entering the public domain for two decades.

When the film It’s a Wonderful Life lost its copyrighted status, the movie became a Christmas classic. Republic Pictures let its copyright run out under the old set of copyright laws. The decision sent it to the public domain in the 1970s, allowing any and all television stations to run during the holidays. The film became nearly ubiquitous throughout the holiday season from then on.

Duke Law’s Center for the Study of the Public Domain published a comprehensive list detailing some of the major works that are now available to anyone who might wish to crib the stories, music, characters, etc. You can check them out on their website, or view these partial lists below.

Characters

• E. C. Segar’s Popeye in the Gobs of Work comic
• Hergé’s (Georges Remi) Tintin in Les Aventures de Tintin

Books and Plays

• William Faulkner, The Sound and the Fury
• Ernest Hemingway, A Farewell to Arms
• Virginia Woolf, A Room of One’s Own
• Dashiell Hammett, Red Harvest and The Maltese Falcon (as serialized in Black Mask magazine)
• John Steinbeck’s first novel, Cup of Gold
• Patrick Hamilton, Rope
• Arthur Wesley Wheen’s English translation of All Quiet on the Western Front by Erich Maria Remarque
• Agatha Christie, Seven Dials Mystery
• E. B. White and James Thurber, Is Sex Necessary? Or, Why You Feel the Way You Do
• Rainer Maria Rilke, Letters to a Young Poet (only the original German version, Briefe an einen jungen Dichter)
• Ellery Queen (Frederic Dannay and Manfred Bennington Lee), The Roman Hat Mystery

Films

• A dozen more Mickey Mouse animations (including Mickey’s first talking appearance in The Karnival Kid)
• The Cocoanuts, directed by Robert Florey and Joseph Santley (the first Marx Brothers feature film)
• The Broadway Melody, directed by Harry Beaumont (winner of the Academy Award for Best Picture)
• The Hollywood Revue of 1929, directed by Charles Reisner (featuring the song “Singin’ in the Rain”)
• The Skeleton Dance, directed by Walt Disney and animated by Ub Iwerks (the first Silly Symphony short from Disney)
• Blackmail, directed by Alfred Hitchcock (Hitchcock’s first sound film)
• Hallelujah, directed by King Vidor (one of the first film from a major studio with an all African-American cast)
• The Wild Party, directed by Dorothy Arzner (Clara Bow’s first “talkie”)
• Welcome Danger, directed by Clyde Bruckman and Malcolm St. Clair (the first full-sound comedy starring Harold Lloyd)
• On With the Show, directed by Alan Crosland (the first all-talking, all-color, feature-length film)
• Show Boat, directed by Harry A. Pollard (adaptation of the novel and musical)
• The Black Watch, directed by John Ford (Ford’s first sound film)
• Spite Marriage, directed by Edward Sedgwick and Buster Keaton (Keaton’s final silent feature)
• Dynamite, directed by Cecil B. DeMille (DeMille’s first sound film)
• Gold Diggers of Broadway, directed Roy Del Ruth

Musical Compositions

• “Singin’ in the Rain”, lyrics by Arthur Freed, music by Nacio Herb Brown
• “Ain’t Misbehavin’”, lyrics by Andy Paul Razaf, music by Thomas W. (“Fats”) Waller & Harry Brooks (from the musical Hot Chocolates)
• “An American in Paris”, George Gershwin
• “Boléro”, Maurice Ravel
• “Tiptoe Through the Tulips”, lyrics by Alfred Dubin, music by Joseph Burke
• “Happy Days Are Here Again”, lyrics by Jack Yellen, music by Milton Ager
• “What Is This Thing Called Love?”, by Cole Porter (from Porter’s musical Wake Up and Dream)
• “Am I Blue?”, lyrics by Grant Clarke, music by Harry Akst
• “You Were Meant for Me”, lyrics by Arthur Freed, music by Nacio Herb Brown
• “Waiting for a Train”, lyrics and music by Jimmie Rodgers

Sound Recordings from 1924

• “My Way’s Cloudy”, recorded by Marian Anderson
• “Rhapsody in Blue”, recorded by George Gershwin
• “Shreveport Stomp”, recorded by Jelly Roll Morton
• “Krooked Blues”, recorded by King Oliver’s Creole Jazz Band featuring Louis Armstrong
• “Deep Blue Sea Blues”, recorded by Clara Smith
• “It Had To Be You”, recorded by the Isham Jones Orchestra and by Marion Harris
• “California Here I Come”, recorded by Al Jolson

Art

Art is only considered public domain in 2025 if it was “published,” as defined by copyright law, in 1929. If a piece of art was not exhibited until later, the copyright expiration takes place 95 years after its first public showing. René Magritte’s The Treachery of Images was finished by 1929, but the year it first became available to the public is not known.

• Salvador Dali’s Illumined Pleasures, The Accommodations of Desire, and The Great Masturbator